Knowing God

 

Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Sermon for Trinity Sunday 6/12/22

Knowing God

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I think one of the most exciting passages of Scripture to consider is our Epistle lesson this morning. It asks a question that the prophet Isaiah originally asked in pondering the greatness of God. The question does not appear in Isaiah in our English translations because the quote is actually from the Greek translation in which it appears which was pretty commonly used in the Jewish world at the time of the Apostles, the Septuagint, from Isaiah 40:13. But the question is a good one - who understands God? Who has known Him? Isaiah goes on to ask a number of penetrating questions about creation, to demonstrate how incomprehensible God is, when we consider His work and this world.

But, in one very important sense, the answer to the question is us! Because God has chosen to reveal Himself, His nature, and His will to us, we can lay claim to knowing God - not in His fulness, for that is beyond our finite frame, but we know Him in a way no other people know Him. Christians have His nature and His will revealed to them, and because He also dwells in us by virtue of the Holy Spirit who has been given to each one that believes, we also have the ability to understand His own revelation and believe it. Our theme this morning is knowing God.

We know God. Others guess, and sometimes their guesses are close to the truth, but usually they imagine God to be uncaring or absent or too far away to make a difference. They imagine that whatever one says about God is good enough. The line of reasoning seems to be that being God, He is so huge and has so much on His plate that He cannot be troubled by us mere humans. He doesn't care what we think of Him. He has no way of tracking each of us. He is pleased if we even bother to think about Him.

We have all encountered theologians of this type. They don't seem to be theologians because they have no intention of being theologians, but they hold forth on God and His nature and His identity as though they know something when they do not. These are Aunt Harriet and Uncle Clyde theologians, the man who works in the same office or buys coffee at the same coffee-shop theologians. They boldly assert that God is like this, or God would not consider doing that. "My God would not blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah." "I have no time for a God who would do such a thing!" "God wants us to do this or tolerate that or cause this and that to happen!"

Trouble is, their pronouncements have no foundation outside of their own emotions or prejudices. There is no Scripture that asserts what they say, and there are typically plenty that directly contradict them. And God says He wants to be known for who He is. That is His name, after all! "I am who I am." The fact that He doesn't strike down every person who says something stupid about Him doesn't mean that He doesn't care, it means that He cares about them enough to give them space to grow and learn.

Also, the fact that there are so many wrong ideas about God floating about, and many having so many followers doesn't mean that no one can possibly know, either! It means that the Bible is right. Scriptures say that we hate God by nature. It tells us that there is a devil out there messing with us, trying to keep us from knowing the truth about God. God desires that we know Him, and understand Him and trust in Him. From Old to New Testament, that is the message: Isaiah 65:1, "I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me; I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me. I said, 'Here am I, here am I,' To a nation which did not call on My name." Up to the New Testament, 1 Timothy 2:4, "God our Savior . . . desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

God wants to be known and has revealed Himself. He insists on being known for who He is in truth and what He is like. Anything else is a false God, an idol, something that doesn't really exist, except in the minds of sinful men who are fleeing from the One who does exist. He tells us all about Himself as identification. What you say about God and what you believe about God is significant for your life and for eternity. It doesn't change God, but it can shape your relationship with Him – or determine whether you actually have one or not. Jesus told us that: John 8:31-32, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Several times, the Apostles refer to Christians simply as those who "know the truth".

We call what we know about God a mystery. It is, in the sense that it is something we would never have reasoned our way to. It is the inner nature of God as He is, not something observable from the outside. God had to reveal it to us Himself. The Church coined a unique word for this unique revelation: God is a Trinity, which is a noun, or Triune, which is an adjective. The word itself is not from the Bible, but the Latin words for three and for one pressed together into one word to encapsulate the revelation that God is Three Persons in One Divine Being or essence. Having said that, we have just scratched the surface. We have already read, this morning, what is arguably the best description or definition of God's nature in the Athanasian Creed. We can talk about God, but even as we do, we don't clearly understand how it works – or how He works. And that is okay.

God should be somewhat beyond our complete comprehension. Nevertheless, He tells us this much, more than we can actually process in our brains, as a form of identification. This, complex and somewhat confusing as it is, is the real deal. Anything simple and direct, something that makes perfect sense to us, is a counterfeit. God want us to know Him, and trust Him, For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

Isaiah 42:8, "I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images." Remember, the word translated "LORD" is the name of God, "I am who I am", abbreviated into one word. That is also the basis for God's authority and relationship to the people of Israel - I am the Lord! It is the reality of who He is that is the foundation for His glory and His authority. He speaks and we listen because He is the Lord. That title is a relationship, one that we honor when we speak of Jesus Christ as Lord.

The relationship of the Old Testament was built on the Lord being who He is, and on all that He had done for His chosen people. It was a relationship of choice and grace and love, on the one side, and faith and fear and receiving on the other. Today, in Jesus Christ, we see the fulness of the nature of God more clearly, but the relationship is still one of grace and love from God and by God. Only, today, we can see the depth of that love so much more clearly. We do not know God as the One who thunders at the top of a mountain and causes plagues to force others to set us free, or causes manna to appear on the ground each morning. We know Him as a loving heavenly Father, who sent His Son to become one of us and share in what it is to be human and the troubles of this world. The Father sent the Son to live without sin and earn what we did not and could not, and then to die as we have earned and deserved, taking our place in death and under the righteous judgment of God against sin and the sinner.

Our knowledge of God is the knowledge of the cross and the empty tomb, of forgiveness of sins, and the free gift of eternal life to all that believe. We know Him through the work of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who has given us the Word and faith and hope and brings us the grace of God in Word and Sacrament. That is God as we meet Him here in His Word and in His Worship. We understand that God has the entire universe to run, but He has shown us that He is not too great or grand or busy to humble Himself to be born of a virgin and walk the earth as a man, to redeem us from our sins and rescue us for life in glory with Him.

Some people suggest that God has bigger fish to fry, and cannot be paying attention to each of us. But think about that. We humble humans can develop systems to track millions upon millions of cell phones and digital devices and to monitor them and see who is talking terrorism and who is plotting crimes, but somehow we imagine God cannot be up to the task of looking down on each one of us, caring for us and guiding us and listening to our prayers and answering? Talk about human arrogance! We can do it, but God cannot?

God has spoken to us through the Scriptures and explained Himself and His will to us. And what is His will for us? [our salvation]

God is, by His nature, so much more complex than we can even conceive. But He tells us about it so that we will not be deceived by those who want an imitation that is simple and housebroken and stands in the corner and waits for us to acknowledge Him. That is the role of an idol. The God who reveals Himself in Scripture is all-powerful and all-knowing, and Triune. He has His eyes on us, and His heart is filled with compassion and love for us. He also has a plan for us, each one of us. That plan is, like God, infinitely complex and beyond our tracing out at times, but He has revealed that it is good and for our welfare and salvation.

In broad outlines, I can tell you that it is His will that you trust Him, and keep in the front of your mind at all times that He is with you and will preserve you. Then He would have you live your life in the light of that confidence and in connection with those whom He has called to faith by the preaching of His Word. You can identify that group by looking around you when in worship. It is possible that one or another of your fellow members is not sincere in their confession, but that is not our job to discern. God will do that. We are called to love one another and serve each other and encourage one another in the faith. We are to help each other walk in a manner worthy of the high calling which is ours in Christ Jesus.

And we are to be open, and up front about knowing God. We know Him as He is: loving, forgiving, attentive to us and present among us, three persons in One divine essence, and listening to our prayers. Our lives are not out of control, just out of our control. He is always leading and shaping and guiding us. What we are living in and living through is not always going to make sense to us, but it does to God - and He would have us trust in Him and walk by faith, and be faithful and steadfast in Him. We just need to remember that our lives are about Him, just as His life was all about us!

Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

(Let the people say Amen)